Last week developer Binary Tweed announced that a new and improved version of platform-puzzle adventure Clover would be heading to the PC. This comes after Blitz Game Studios signed the new game, entitled Clover: A Curious Tale, to the Blitz Arcade’s 1UP label, making Clover one of the first Xbox Live Indie Games to be signed up and ported to other platforms.

El33tonline caught up with Daniel ‘Deejay’ Jones, Managing Director of Binary Tweed, to learn a little more about the new enhanced version. We get more details about the new puzzles, sub-quest and the low down on how many multiple endings we can expect in A Curious Tale. Jones also discusses whether we can expect a sequel to Clover and reveals if his opinions of Xbox Live Indie Games have changed.

El33tonline: According to the press release, Clover: A Curious Tale will be coming to the PC and ‘other systems.’ Any chance of expanding what these systems may be? Will Clover return to Xbox Live or perhaps debut on the PlayStation Network?

Whilst there’s nothing to announce at present, those are certainly two platforms I’d love to see the game on. If the game works on a given platform, and makes financial sense, we’ll be looking at taking it there.

El33tonline: You mention that one of the new features of the game will be ‘regional translations.’ Any idea how many languages it will be translated into?

The current plan is English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. It’d be nice to cover areas like Japan and Korea, but with those languages come technical challenges. We considered Nordic languages, but to be honest so many Scandinavians are fantastic English-speakers, there’s not much point.

El33tonline: The new version of the game will include new puzzles and subquest. You mentioned that it will have 25% more items and 50% more puzzles. Please tell us a bit more about the extra content.

One of the hard things when creating the first game was trying to guess how long it would take people to figure out the puzzles. Clover was bigger than many of the Dizzy games that inspired it, but because there were no ‘lives’, it took people far less time to complete.

Some of the existing puzzles were a little linear, and we’ve shaken things up a bit to make people think a little more. Additionally there’s a whole other set of puzzles that make up the sub-quest, which aren’t on the ‘critical path’. Nothing annoys me more in modern Zelda games than so-called secrets, which the plot forces you to discover.

El33tonline: It will also include multiple endings – how many will there be and will these be influenced by the player’s actions during the game?

Part of me is tempted to not specify how many endings there will be, but then at least if people know they’ll have an impetus to see them all! At present there are four different endings, all of which are at least largely dependent on the subquest. One in particular will require you to think more laterally…

El33tonline: Any idea when Clover: A Curious Tale will be released and what the price of the game will be?

These things haven’t been decided yet. I’d like to make the game as cheap as possible, but now I’m not the only one carrying the financial risk, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

El33tonline: Are there any plans for a sequel to Clover in the pipeline now that Blitz Game Studios has signed A Curious Tale?

There will never be a direct sequel to Clover. I’ve got a list of games I’d like to make at least as long as my arm, almost all of which are nothing like Clover. We have however got a pretty solid engine for games of this ilk, and it would make sense to leverage that investment. One things for sure, I’m certainly never writing a puzzle game that’s not in a fantasy setting – it makes life so much harder!

El33tonline: A little while ago you were critical of Microsoft’s marketing of Xbox Live Indie Games. Has this changed at all, and if so how?

My opinion of Microsoft’s lack of marketing still stands, but the implementation of ratings and the re-branding of the channel has helped things a great deal. These recent changes are really great things for the service, and I think perhaps Microsoft jumped the gun a little by launching the service without these features. But then, that’s how Microsoft always works – start small, and achieve dominance with incremental improvements.

El33tonline: You also mentioned that Xbox Live Indie Games was too small a market to make a financially viable game on it, admitting that you won’t recoop your costs of Clover, despite a good critical reception, and that the top selling XBLIG only sell about 10 000 units each. Does this mean that you will abandon Xbox Live or use it again in the future as a stepping stone to greater things?

A lot of what the future brings depends on how Clover: A Curious Tale performs. The creator of XBLIG title Drum Kit said that XBLIG is much like the music industry in the 60’s – there’s a lot of money to be made on small, one-off singles, but some people are trying to be successful by recording albums. I’ve got a couple of ideas that would work best on XBLIG, and some that are far too ambitious.

El33tonline: It looks like your belief that XBLIG can be useful for producing proofs-of-concept to publishers has paid off. Do you think other Xbox Live Indie Games also have the potential to move forward and what words of encouragement would you give to other indie developers?

It’s an interesting question, because there’s a balance between creating a game and creating a business. The chaps behind World Of Goo said there’s no point trying to create a business until you’ve created a great game. Whilst I agree with this to some degree, if I hadn’t been savvy about branding and marketing, and the opportunities that lay outside XBLIG, I doubt I’d be in the position I am now.

I’m tempted to start drawing parallels with the concepts of isshin and mushin, but to be honest I think I come across as pretentious enough most of the time already!

In terms of practical advice, I’d just tell people to be fearless. Write bold press releases. Send them to the world, and don’t worry about what people might think. Be aware of what it is that you’ve created that’s different and exploitable, and be prepared to communicate that to people that may be interested in taking your game to the next level.

Thanks for your time Daniel, we look forward to hearing more about Clover: A Curious Tale in the coming weeks. Until then, head over to our previous coverage for more information about Clover and Clover: A Curious Tale. Clover is available now on Xbox Live Indie Games for 400 Microsoft Points. Stay tuned for our review of Clover, coming this week!